The developed technology is based on the use of titanium oxide nanoparticles on glass surfaces or glass. These particles are subjected to high temperatures to adhere, after which, in the presence of sunlight or ultraviolet light, oxidizing species are produced that are capable of degrading organic material.

In a initial phase some mushrooms are used to transform the compunds to be elimitad by the nanoparticles.

The american startup Vorbeck Materials hopes to market, later this year, grafene-based conductive inksthat could be used to print RFID(Radio Frequency Identification) antennas and contacts for flexible displays.

According to the company, these graphene-based inks can be used in applications where traditional inks based on carbon do not reach sufficient conductivity and with a price significantly lower than silver inks.

EUMINAfab (European Infrastructure for Micro-and Nanofabrication and characterization) opened its virtual doors, offering scientists and scientific institutions free access to machines and knowledge related to micro and nanotechnology.

EUMINAfab enables to its users free access to 36 leading technology belonging to 10 institutions in 8 Member States of the European Union. The only condition is that users must consent to EUMINAfab publishing the results of their investigations.

The deadline for submitting project proposals via the website EUMINAfab opened on September 1.

The alliance IK4participates in research projects of the Seventh Framework Program of the European Union called NANOTHER, LABONFOIL and POCO.

The project NANOTHER seeks synthesis of polymeric nanoparticles and magnetic drug carriers for the treatment and diagnosis of cancer. Also collaborating on this project, besides other international partners, are CIC bioGUNEand pharmaceutical Pharmamar and Pharmakineand a spin-off from the University of the Basque Countryspecialized in products and services for preclinical and clinical research in cancer and metastasis.

The POCOproject aims at developing polymer nanocomposites with carbon nanotubes to obtain materials with special properties with applications in the aerospace, automotive, construction and biomedical research. Besides two IK4 alliance members, the participation of the Iberian Peninsula in the project is completed by the University of the Basque Country and Acciona Infraestructuras.

This year the spin-off from the universities of Namurand Liège, Nanocyl, has introduced two new nanotube technologies known as carbon SiziCyl and PregCyl.

SiziCyl ia a new generation of sizing agents containing carbon nanotubes. According to the company, this solution is an alternative to conventional solutions that improves the mechanical properties of composite materials and user-friendly end.

PregCyl is a new range of pre-peg materials containing carbon nanotubes and that it meets the need of intermediate products ready to use.

A spin-off from the Nanoworld Institute called Technobiochip participates in a European consortium that is developing a lab-on-a-chip device to execute quickly and cheaply diagnostics with. The device integrates in single chip sensitive optical detectors with microfluidics for the samples processing.

The optical methods are more sensitive than those based on electrical resistance changes, but need complex and expensive instruments. This problem has been solved in the development of this device.

The sensors are placed in a microfluidic channel carved into a silicon chip. The channel has nine corners, and each is aligned with a waveguide of silicon nitride which carries light through the chip. This light comes from nine different diodes and goes to a single light detector. Each waveguide has different binding molecules, either an antibody or a DNA strain selected for its ability to bind to a particular blood biomolecule, such as a hormone. When a sample of blood is placed in the canal passes through the waveguides, and binding molecules cling to their goal. When biomolecules are attached to the surface of the waveguide, the speed of light moving through the waveguide switches creates a detectable change in the signal that is picked up by the light sensor, which is converted into an electrical signal that can be read. The prototype of this device is capable of detecting new biomolecules at the same time in blood serum.

Currently the device developed in this project, called NEMOSLAB, is being tested for the detection of fertility hormones and the BRCA1 gene, whose variations are implicated in some cancers types, including breast cancer.

Oxford Advanced Surfaces Group Plc has announced the development of a new technology that provides high bond strength in a wide range of existing industrial adhesives (epoxy, polyurethane, cyanocrylate, silicone). This technology can improve the adhesion properties, allowing the joining of materials such as polyimide and PET polymers, where epoxy adhesives do not usually achieve satisfactory joints.

The Onto® adhesion promoters, developed by the spinout of the University of Oxford, can be used in a wide range of substrates including polymers, inorganic materials and metals and can be applied with a choice of wet application processes. Depending on the application that is intended, its thickness can vary from several nanometers to several microns.

The conventional X-ray machines use a single emitter of tungsten as electron emitter, while the prototype developed by XinRay Systems uses a series of vertical carbon nanotubes, providing hundreds of small issuers.

Meanwhile, in conventional machines, it takes a while to heat the tungsten; the nanotubes emit electrons instantly when subjected to voltage. Furthermore, conventional technology requires the source of electrons moving around the object to obtain 3-D (as in CT) and need to take hundreds of images because the motion of the heart and lungs can lead to blurred images. The machine developed by XinRay Systems can turn on and off multiple nanotubes issuers, and this facilitates additional sequential images from different angles.

It has been shown that this new technology accelerates the body imaging; the images obtained are sharp and could increase the precision of radiation therapy so as not to damage healthy tissues.

The company Xintek sells its nanotube emitter display technology to manufacturers like Samsung and Motorola, which use them for the development of screens that consume less power than LCD and plasma while maintaining the same resolution as the cathode ray.

The nanotubes are arranged so that they are closely packed together in order that water flows through them as if traversing a pile of straws. The opening of the nanotubes is only a few nanometers, so that water molecules can pass through them, while bacteria, biological material and other impurities can not. Thus, the water obtained after passing through the nanotube is clean of impurities.

While traditional membranes in dirt are stored within the membrane, in these membranes such impurities are kept out of the nanotubes, facilitating cleaning.

Another possible application of such filters would be water desalination.

These nanosensors use a single nanotransistor which cable is a simply carbon nanotube and allow the development of optical and electrochemical nanosensors, enabling the detection of DNA probes without the need for modification to increase the sensitivity of the system.

In the future, these nanosensors could be used to detect other molecules, and for studies of genetic diseases.

INL – News

New INL researcher Marta Prado

Marta Prado is INL´s latest researcher and has just settled in in Braga. She has an advanced degree in Food Science and Technology and studies in Biology Science from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). Marta has a PhD from the same university in the program of Nutrition, Bromatology and Food technology.

Between the years 1999 and 2006, our new Spanish colleague has been working as a researcher in the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences (Lugo, Spain) from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC). Between 2006 and 2010, she has been working as Scientific Officer in the Institute of Reference Materials and Measurements from the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC-IRMM) in Geel, Belgium.

Most of her research experience is related with genomic analysis tools and its application to food analysis, since she had worked on the development and optimization of PCR-based methods for the control of food and animal feeds. In the INL, she will work on the application of magnetic nanobiosensors for the detection of ruminant origin meals in feed.